Windprints

Last Update: 01 September 2004
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Windprints is
the story of a young South African trying to come to terms with
his role in a society going through tremendous social and political
changes.

Anton van Heerden (Sean Bean), a news
cameraman working at the forefront of the political upheaval
in Johannesburg during the early 1980s, is sent to film
a manhunt in Namibia where he is forced to confront his attitude
to his work and his Afrikaner roots, with violent consequences.

Anton is known as a highly skilled cameraman,
capable of getting sensational news footage. Like many cameramen,
he uses the camera to keep an objective distance between himself
and the events he records. A colleague, Thozamile (Treasure Tshabalala),
however, accuses him of recklessness and urges him to get more
personally involved in the events he films. As his camera work
is seen across the world he has a responsibility to ensure it
reflects the events accurately rather than relying on sensation
for effect.

Anton is given the opportunity to consider
Thozamiles challenge when he is sent to Namibia by his
bureau chief (Anthony Fridjohn) to work with veteran news journalist,
Charles Rutherford (John Hurt). Charles is making an in-depth
news report about the hunt for a mysterious renegade Nama, Nhadiep
(Lesley Fong), who has killed a number of farm labourers in a
dusty sheep farming community over a period of two years. Ironically,
the very people under threat, the Nama, have come to regard Nhadiep
as a kind of deity, a superhuman spirit that can manifest itself
in any form - the wind, a rock, a human being. To the Nama people,
Nhadieps ability to defy the authorities has come to symbolize
a spirit of defiance against the settlers in Namibia, despite
his violence towards his own people.

Anton prides himself on being a hard-news
cameraman, working at the cutting edge of history. As such, he
has little interest in the story of Nhadiep, which he considers
a soft-story. But gradually he is drawn in by the
mysteries surrounding the enigmatic Nhadiep and soon finds himself
aggressively urging the pragmatic and skeptical Charles to get
to the heart of the story.

Antons pursuit of Nhadieps story
brings him in direct conflict with one of the local farmers,
Henning (Marius Weyers). Henning calls Anton a traitor for making
a film about a lowly Nama, a hotnot and not about
the suffering and losses of his own people, the Boere.
But Hennings antagonism only serves to fuel Antons
interest in Nhadiep and he immerses himself in the film.

But Antons infatuation with Nhadiep
is challenged by a cynical journalist, Pieterse (Kurt Egelhof),
who accuses the news crew of romanticizing Nhadiep and reinforcing
his legendary status through media hype, conveniently ignoring
his brutality towards his own people for the sake of a sensational
film. Pieterse bitterly points out that Nhadiep might even be
in the employ of certain farmers who are using his reign of terror
to devalue land prices for their own ends.

Anton is appalled at the idea that Nhadiep
may be nothing more than a mercenary. He wants to believe in
Nhadieps magic. And again he finds himself accused of misrepresenting
events.

His disillusionment soon gives way
to an angry determination to find those responsible for Nhadieps
murders. And in Antons mind, that person has to be the
aggressive farmer, Henning. They are told that while the other
farmers are selling up, hes busy buying. Anton discovers
that a Nama woman, rumoured to be Nhadieps girlfriend,
is living on Hennings farm. Anton believes Nhadiep is the
father of her child.

Anton relentlessly pursues Henning, which
alienates him from Charles. Finally Anton sets off on his own,
determined to uncover the truth.

But his actions ultimately lead to Nhadieps
death.

Anton is devastated. His desire to overcome
his observer status has made him an accomplice in Nhadieps
death and has ensured that any hope of discovering the truth
behind Nhadieps motives is lost forever.

A crowd of Namas who gather at the
police station at the news of the renegades death and are
dismayed to discover that Nhadieps face has been shot away,
disfigured beyond recognition. Some of the Nama crowd angrily
accuses the police of shooting somebody else as a trick to get
them back onto the farms again.

At Nhadieps funeral, in an emotional
turning point for Anton, he sheds his camera and returns to Hennings
farm alone to confront him about Nhadiep.

But Henning, in a defiant and triumphant
mood, draws Anton into a fight. The two men batter each other
with the ferocity of brothers in a civil war. But Anton is no
match for Hennings strength and soon lies bleeding and
exhausted. Henning staggers away bewildered that a fellow
Afrikaner could fight him with such hatred.

Suddenly, a shot rings out, and Henning
collapses to the ground. Shocked, Anton looks around, but there
is nobody to be seen.

The gunman is never revealed. It might be
Nhadiep. It might be somebody else. Who pulled the trigger is
of no consequence. For it is the inexorable process of history
that will destroy Henning and those he represents.

Set against the stark Namibian landscape,
Windprints is in many ways a parable, a window onto the
complex world of a society that is struggling to contain the
rapid and inevitable changes that are taking place. It is told
from the point of view of a young liberal Afrikaner who, though
bewildered by the problems that beset his country, learns to
fight for what he believes.